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The Other 1%
6 years ago
General
Three new characters are taking shape in my sketchbooks, and while that's happening, I'm reading stuff like this:
PLAYING CHANGES: JAZZ FOR THE NEW CENTURY by Nate Chinen (Vintage paperback, 2019, 978-110-1873496)
https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Changes-Jazz-New-Century/dp/1101873493/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1562908729&sr=1-1
reviewed by Roochak
Read between the lines of this celebratory book about 21st century jazz, and you'll realize that for all the record deals, MacArthur Fellowships, and Kennedy Center artistic directorships being handed out to jazzmen, for most women who play jazz, it might as well still be 1949. Nate Chinen opens his twelfth and final chapter with a telling anecdote about guitarist Mary Halvorson's Village Vanguard debut, in which she was literally invisible to the audience; a reader might get the idea that this scenario is a metaphor for the jazz establishment, including fans, critics, educators, the male musicians who serve as de facto gatekeepers to the world's bandstands, and, of course, the readers of books like this one.
Don't get me wrong: PLAYING CHANGES is an interesting and informative book. You want an easy-to-follow history of the music from the "Jazz Wars" of the '80s/'90s to today's syncretic music which takes in bebop, postbop, hip hop, neo-soul, R&B, electronics, metal, classical, and/or global folk traditions, then Chinen has written the ideal critical guide. (Okay, far from ideal if you want to know why women seem to account for about 1% of the music that Chinen considers genuinely innovative and important.)
Give the man credit for what he does cover, though. He'll explain why Brad Mehldau has influenced an entire generation of pianists, why Steve Coleman is a hero to a generation of composers, what Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, and the Soulquarians brought to the table. But it isn't until chapter ten that a woman -- Esperanza Spalding -- gets her own chapter; in the preceding 182 pages, only two women, Cassandra Wilson and Snarky Puppy's Lalah Hathaway, get more than a passing mention.
Troubling? Yeah, but what's the answer to that trouble? This isn't a book about straight ahead, mainstream jazz, but about what's perceived as today's creative music -- eclectic, often confrontational, impatient with the old rules and definitions of "jazz." But the new rules? Still made by men.
PLAYING CHANGES: JAZZ FOR THE NEW CENTURY by Nate Chinen (Vintage paperback, 2019, 978-110-1873496)
https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Changes-Jazz-New-Century/dp/1101873493/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1562908729&sr=1-1
reviewed by Roochak
Read between the lines of this celebratory book about 21st century jazz, and you'll realize that for all the record deals, MacArthur Fellowships, and Kennedy Center artistic directorships being handed out to jazzmen, for most women who play jazz, it might as well still be 1949. Nate Chinen opens his twelfth and final chapter with a telling anecdote about guitarist Mary Halvorson's Village Vanguard debut, in which she was literally invisible to the audience; a reader might get the idea that this scenario is a metaphor for the jazz establishment, including fans, critics, educators, the male musicians who serve as de facto gatekeepers to the world's bandstands, and, of course, the readers of books like this one.
Don't get me wrong: PLAYING CHANGES is an interesting and informative book. You want an easy-to-follow history of the music from the "Jazz Wars" of the '80s/'90s to today's syncretic music which takes in bebop, postbop, hip hop, neo-soul, R&B, electronics, metal, classical, and/or global folk traditions, then Chinen has written the ideal critical guide. (Okay, far from ideal if you want to know why women seem to account for about 1% of the music that Chinen considers genuinely innovative and important.)
Give the man credit for what he does cover, though. He'll explain why Brad Mehldau has influenced an entire generation of pianists, why Steve Coleman is a hero to a generation of composers, what Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, and the Soulquarians brought to the table. But it isn't until chapter ten that a woman -- Esperanza Spalding -- gets her own chapter; in the preceding 182 pages, only two women, Cassandra Wilson and Snarky Puppy's Lalah Hathaway, get more than a passing mention.
Troubling? Yeah, but what's the answer to that trouble? This isn't a book about straight ahead, mainstream jazz, but about what's perceived as today's creative music -- eclectic, often confrontational, impatient with the old rules and definitions of "jazz." But the new rules? Still made by men.
Now, who's back and bringing new friends?" Chris says into the phone.